Photo and Print Replicas

Portraits: Logan McLean

Logan McLean, 19, feeds his birds a treat of fresh sweet corn Saturday in a pen with 10 varieties of birds. It is part of the bird farm he runs on his parents’ farm west of Wheatland, N.D. Logan began farming birds in seventh grade. His curiosity was piqued as a child by a pheasant he saw on the side of a road, and through 4-H he was able to learn a lot about birds. In previous years, he would raise hundreds of pheasants for game releases. He would also sell birds for training hunting dogs. Now he will butcher, clean, dress and skin birds, as some of the feathers are used for tying fly fishing lures. This year he doesn’t have nearly as many birds, as he just started attending Minnesota State University Moorhead and can only visit his birds occasionally. Though he is pursuing a career in the music industry, he expects that eventually he will work with birds again, perhaps in retirement. “Birds will always be in my life,” he says.